Phil and I love to cook together and the holidays are a time we can bake gifts for our sweet Mirror Lake neighbors. At Thanksgiving, we baked pecan pies for these sweet people...

Aren't these pie boxes the perfect touch?

Christmas goody baking is a favorite time of ours. This year I placed the goodies in separate holiday bags and then placed the bags in a Christmas tin. That way I don't have to worry about powdered sugar getting on the cheese cookies. Yeah, I can be a perfectionist.

The snow moved in at 4:00 this morning and it's still snowing eight hours later as I begin writing. In fact it's supposed to snow until Saturday morning. How beautiful to look out our bedroom windows early this morning and see this...

From our master bedroom balcony

Our driveway as seen from the bedroom balcony

The birds were impatiently waiting for the feeders so I hurriedly put out two feeders--sunflower seeds and bark butter which is one of their winter favorites!

Happy birds

I also want to give the birds easy access to water so Phil filled the heated birdbath and plugged it in the outlet.

Phil gets the heated birdbath ready

I took some pictures of Two Holt in all its snow glory.

Side entrance to Two Holt

Watch the snow fall!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Two Holt as seen from the road

These snow-covered roads are begging me to take a walk.

Hickory Hill Road in front of Two Holt

Phil and I bought artic grip snow boots from LL Bean for Christmas presents to each other. Last year I slipped on ice while trying to take a snow walk and whacked the back of my head! The boxes were wrapped and under the tree. Hmmm...should we open them early and use them? Of course! Merry Christmas to us!

Merry Christmas to us!

Next we were off to take a short walk. I just love these snowy roads! But the snow was still falling quite heavily so it was definitely a short walk.

Phil and Boots walking Hickory Hill Road

Around a bend on Hickory Hill Road

Boots loves the snow!

The town's snow plows were busy...

Accidents happen in weather like this. This driver was fortunate. He didn't go ALL the way in Mirror Lake when his truck fishtailed!

And my neighbor took this photograph of the event.

Scary, huh?

Highlands is a beautiful place to live. We're so thankful to call Highlands home.

(Edited to add final snow total pictures) Our official snowfall total is 15". Perfect!

Finally I leave you with this video of our havanese, Boots, dashing through the snow! Stay warm, my friends!

Cold weather and rain with some possible snow are soon moving into Highlands, North Carolina. Pam and I decided to tackle our second Girls Only Hike before the artic air arrived. This time we hiked Glen Falls, triple waterfalls along a round trip hike of two miles. Well, it would have been two miles, but we kind of got a little lost at the bottom of the falls and unintentionally walked a loop once or twice. Oops!

We parked and headed off down the trail which was fairly easy at first.

We came to a series of steps and I mentally noted that those same steps were going to feel much steeper on our return.

It's always exciting when you're hiking through the woods and come upon the first signs of flowing water.

We walked on. Sometimes we had to climb over fallen trees. Sometimes we climbed under fallen trees. Sometimes we walked around fallen trees. And sometimes we climbed through fallen trees. Did I mention there were a few fallen trees?

Was it worth it? You'd better believe it!

Down the trail a little further.

We took a selfie!

Then we hiked further downstream.

And we reached the bottom.

And what post would be complete without video? Enjoy the beauty surrounding Highlands, North Carolina. Pam and I surely do!

I love decorating for Christmas. Don't you? Come inside for a quick tour! Our kitchen/dining room/living room are open to each other. Here's the view from the dining area. (Please ignore the unpainted ceilings. We're trying to find a painter now.)

And here's a view from the living room area looking back toward the dining area.

Changes are coming soon to these areas in the picture below. We've finally settled on a large area rug for the living room area and should have it in place within a couple of weeks. And we've hired someone to hang a new white French door and change the trim to match the rest of the house. The kitchen window trim will be painted white, too.

Mantles are always fun to decorate!

Here's a view from the staircase...

Greenery is everywhere! From the vintage ice skates hanging on the old sled...